Debate rages over plastic bottle chemical's safety

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Canada is moving to get rid of
products with a chemical common in plastic baby bottles, the
United States is expressing concern over its safety and some
retailers are planning to stop selling these items.

But whether the chemical bisphenol A poses genuine health
risks in people remains a matter of debate, with industry
groups defending its safety and environmental activists saying
studies involving animals show otherwise.

Bisphenol A, or BPA, is used to make polycarbonate plastic,
a clear shatter-resistant material in products ranging from
plastic baby and water bottles to sports safety equipment and
medical devices.

It also is used to make durable epoxy resins used as the
coating in most food and beverage cans.

People can eat or drink the chemical when it leaches out of
the plastic into liquid such as baby formula, water or food
inside the container.

"At this point, the writing is on the wall for bisphenol A.
Major retailers and governments all across the country and the
world are now recognizing that this chemical is extremely toxic
at very low levels of exposure," Michael Schade of the U.S.
environmental group Center for Health, Environment and Justice
said in a telephone interview.

Critics of BPA said more than 150 scientific studies
involving laboratory rodents show BPA to be harmful at even low
levels. But some experts are not convinced.

"For me, the big question is: what levels of exposures are
we getting and are those levels of exposure sufficient to cause
harm?" Carl Winter, director of the Food Safety Program at the
University of California-Davis, said in a telephone interview.
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